 Beyond our core curriculum, students at the Great Books Summer Program get the opportunity to explore personal areas of interest in our electives classes. Working in small groups with highly-talented teachers, each week everyone gets to choose a literature and an art elective to expand their horizons and to share their creativity through self expression.
Our Elective Leaders for 2011 brought many different talents and numerous accomplishments to camp to share with the students. a wide variety of activities and passions. From sculpture to performance art, from jazz to photography, students get a chance to learn about and participate in a wealth of activities—many for the first time!
The Elective Leaders are both instructors and facilitators in this process, nurturing budding talents or encouraging the kids to just try something new!
Meet some of our 2011 Elective Leaders!
Matthew Bamberg-Johnson (Theater)
Matt knows that this will be the highlight of his year. Returning for his fifth summer with the Great Books Summer Program, Matthew, or “Bam,” as he is often called at camp, looks forward to collaborating with passionate young theatre students to create insightful, exciting new works exploring the use of space and the combination of “found” and self-created texts. Matthew graduated from Trinity College in 2006, where he was the presidential fellow of the Theater & Dance department. He is pursuing an MFA in Acting at California Institute for the Arts . Matthew loves being outdoors, cooking, arguing about the purpose of art, and will happily play Frisbee with every last one of you.
Ida Rothschild (Visual Arts/Creative Writing)
Ida is currently in the process of completing her doctorate in American Literature at Boston University; prior to embarking on that endless project, she also received her M.A. in English and American Literature form B.U. after graduating magna cum laude from Wellesley College with a double-major in English and Sociology. This is Ida's sixth year teaching for the Great Books Summer Program, where she has previously instructed the Writing and Visual Art Electives and served as a Discussion Leader. Ida has spent more time than is healthy studying the various works of Herman Melville and occasionally dabbling in a little Shakespeare just for good measure.
Kimberly Burwick (Creative Writing)
Kimberly is an American poet. She is author of Horses in the Cathedral and Has No Kinsmen. Her poems have been published in many literary journals and magazines including Fence, Kalliope, Barrow Street, Hayden’s Ferry Review, The Indiana Review, Hotel Amerika, and The Literary Review. Her honors include the 2007 Anthony Hecht Prize and the Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Memorial Fund Poetry Prize and fellowships from the Vermont Studio Center and Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center. Burwick was raised in Massachusetts, and holds a B.A. from the University of Wisconsin and an M.F.A. from Antioch University. She also attended High School at Worcester Academy. She teaches in the U.C.L.A. Extension Writer's Program and lives in Lewiston, Idaho.
Poncho Williams (Music)
Jazz saxophonist, Poncho Williams will be joining Greats Books this summer as the music electives leader. A native of Detroit and a founding member of the premier jazz band Bonnie’s Pearl, Poncho has performed all over the United States. While his love for music is deeply rooted in Straight Ahead Jazz, he extends his style to cover popular music genres including Hip-Hop, R&B, Top 40 and Smooth Jazz |